matches; but there was profound silence; and the king and his officers
puzzled themselves to decide if they were men or glow-worms. On the
21st, at five A. M., the king gave orders for every one to be ready and
at his post. He himself repaired to the battle-field. Sitting in a big
fosse with all his officers, he had his breakfast brought thither, and
was eating with good appetite, when a prisoner was brought to him, a
gentleman of the League, who had advanced too far whilst making a
reconnaissance. "Good day, Belin," said the king, who recognized him,
laughing: "embrace me for your welcome appearance." Belin embraced him,
telling him that he was about to have down upon him thirty thousand foot
and ten thousand horse. "Where are your forces?" he asked the king,
looking about him. "O! you don't see them all, M. de Belin," said Henry:
"you don't reckon the good God and the good right, but they are ever with
me."

The action began about ten o'clock. The fog was still so thick that
there was no seeing one another at ten paces. The ardor on both sides
was extreme; and, during nearly three hours, victory seemed to twice
shift her colors. Henry at one time found himself entangled amongst some
squadrons so disorganized that he shouted, "Courage, gentlemen; pray,
courage! Can't we find fifty gentlemen willing to die with their king?"
At this moment Chatillon, issuing from Dieppe with five hundred picked
men, arrived on the field of battle. The king dismounted to fight at his
side in the trenches; and then, for a quarter of an hour, there was a
furious combat, man to man. At last, "when things were in this desperate
state," says Sully, "the fog, which had been very thick all the morning,
dropped down suddenly, and the cannon of the castle of Arques getting
sight of the enemy's army, a volley of four pieces was fired, which made
four beautiful lanes in their squadrons and battalions. That pulled them
up quite short; and three or four volleys in succession, which produced